Ex-Employee Here
I worked for PC World in 2004/2005 in the PC Clinic before it was rebranded. I found that the level of support given to our customers was excellent, and I always hate to see the PC World employees take so much flack.
With PC World you have to take it at face value. If you wanted every member of staff to be a fully trained PC Tech with a couple of years experience it would raise the staff costs to such a point that the PCs would have to have a massive price hike. I found that the majority of staff always gave honest, correct advice, and everyone in the PC clinic worked their hardest to resole the problem as quickly as possible.
I'm not sure about now, but all the computer warrenty repairs weren't actually handled insore, they were handled by another DSG company called PC Service Call. I know several PC Service call employees personally, and all of them are very good at their jobs.
The main problem here is customers. The kind of person that buys a PC in PC World is the kind of person that turns up in the store 1 week after a purchase with a PC full of spyware and their scanner plugged into the ethernet port. Those customers get angry that their problem wont be solved free of charge, and then tell all their friends PC World is rubbish.
As far as the stories here about people recommending the wrong PCs and giving bad advice, not all staff members are as good as others, but thats a problem thats assosicated with retail companies everywhere. I've worked in several independant computer shops in the past, and I found that your just as likely to get wrong advice there.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
